Yes, I do still exist. I know I haven't been as active around here as I used to be - that's been a symptom of being exceptionally busy in both my professional as well as personal life. Of course, Project Blue Bird has also suffered from this - I honestly haven't been out to work in the shop for a LONG time, so there's been no real progress there either.

Anyway, I wanted to give everybody an update on some plans that are being formulated by Bruce, Eric, and me. First, do know that the Nest isn't going anywhere. All three of us are committed to maintaining it as the premier community for 71-74 Plymouth B-bodies.

What is happening is that we are in the process of evaluating some new software upon which to run the site. We've been running on phpBB since the beginning, and it's served us well - but the time has come for us to look into something a bit more professional, with a few more integrated features so that we can accomplish some things we've really wanted to do. We are in the evaluation phase of a package we think is a good fit - so we'll likely be making a decision within the next week. Of course, that starts the whole process of actually deploying a new software solution, and migrating the existing forum data to the new one. I'll keep everyone posted on this progress!

The software we are looking at would continue to provide all of the forum functionality that has been the core of the community. It also has functionality that could allow us to have:

- A more robust and easily maintainable (by the admin's) technical archive
- The return of the long missing image gallery. This time with the ability for the community to contribute.
- Member blogs: the place that everyone could keep a restoration project blog.

This software is a professional package, and thus does come with a not-insignificant cost associated. To date, we've declined every request and opportunity to put ads on the site, and we'd really like to stay away from that. The site has been hosted on one of my company's servers (for those that don't know, I'm one of the two partners at http://www.d-i.co). While it's not really "free" hosting, there's never been a direct cost there as the site's traffic and storage aren't really significant on that server. So we've really not had any expenses to date for the community.

What we've decided to do now that there are some expenses is to give the community here the option to support the Road Runner Nest a bit, rather than have advertising on the site. Based on the regular active membership of the site, if everybody was willing to kick in $15 or $20, that would cover the acquisition of the new software licenses. I'm not going to put a minimum or maximum on contributions, though anything above the initial acquisition cost would go in an account and be used to cover ongoing maintenance and support costs for the software.

So be keeping an eye here on this thread for updates. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your feedback on the idea of kicking in a few bucks to help keep the Nest ad free.

If you all can read between the lines, Dave has been footing the whole cost of this site for many years now. I think we can all appreciate the benefits we've had from being a member here.

That's not quite entirely true... I footed a SMALL initial investment along with Dave. But let me repeat it was SMALL.

What's more significant I think is that Dave is the wunderkind that makes all the geeky computer stuff for the site happen behind the scenes. AND he hosts the site on his company servers!

While we may get frustrated at times at the seemingly slow pace of improvements or the issues we have hosting images, keep in mind that Dave runs this place on the side of being a pretty busy guy--with a life and all it's distractions, a father of young kids, and a partner at his company with all those associated headaches.

The goal here is to build a better site, and it is heartening to see the positive reaction we've already had to this post. Good things are ahead for the Nest!

Thanks everybody for the votes of support. As soon as we have everything together as far as the final decision on the software, I'll publish some PayPal info and everything. Once we are moved over onto the new platform, my goal will be to have some type of designation or something that indicates those who have supported the Nest this way - a special rank or something. Gotta figure out what I can do with the new software first, but I do want to be able to thank those of you who are willing and able to donate.

Oh, and CTown... The answer is 2 nights a week before you wind up sleeping on the couch. It's better than a gym membership - I'll actually GO to this. Plus, I'm honestly in the best shape I've ever been in!

i also enjoy no ads and the fact that people offer advise and help instead of trying to sell you something from their personal company. furthermore, i read some post on moparts a day or two ago about corporations buying up private car forums and i am releaved after reading this announcement that this was not what this announcement was about. not that i dislike the nest now but i am looking forward to the upgrades mentioned.

Yes, there has been a trend of corporate acquisition of car forums. As a business owner, I can completely see how that makes sense from a marketing perspective. I did receive an inquiry about selling the Nest a while back actually. I never even mentioned it to Bruce or Eric since I had absolutely no intention actually selling it. I did hear the guy out, to the point I couldn't get him to actually *give* me a number as far as what he felt it was worth to him. Admittedly, I was mostly playing him to see if I could get a free valuation of things - but he wouldn't bite. Oh well.